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Onto Tuesday, the first day of the Teams, with each group playing 9 matches of 14 boards over 3 days. The event itself is huge as epitomised by the number of participating teams:

Open               236

Intermediate      90

Restricted        102

Novice               40

That's 468 teams which equates, including some 5 and 6 person teams, to around 1900 players. Add in the Walk-In sections and it's pretty close to 2,000 in play. No wonder I could walk down the cafe-strewn streets of Broadbeach and ask a passer-by, who was not even carrying (visibly!) a hand record what time the next session started. Who else but bridge players would dare set foot within range of the convention centre.

So, after three rounds, these teams including Kiwis are in the top 30 in their sections (non Kiwi team members in italics):

Open

2nd	Bach	Ashley Bach, Matthew Brown, Michael Whibley, A Antonios, Nabil Edgtton	67.81
4th	Skipper	Jane and John Skipper, Lynne Geursen, Richard Solomon	63.65
8th	Ding	C Ding, Herman Yuen, P Jeffery, Y Li	61.74
14th	Ware	Michael Ware, Nick Jacob, GeO Tislevoll, T Lie, Max Henbest, David Wiltshire	58.88
20th	Adler	Will Adler, John Luoni, Debbie McLeod, Brian Cleaver	56.74
27th	Pemberton	Michael Pemberton, Chris Ackerley, Graham Wakefield, Nick Van Vught	55.19
28th	Burrows	Wayne Burrows, Peter Hall, Colin Carryer, Sandra Calvert	54.87
29th	Fisher	Liz and Blair Fisher, Andi and Steve Boughey	54.72
30th	Fitzsimons	Mairi and Brian Fitzsimons, Peter and Jillian Ramsey	54.42

 

Restricted

8th	Handa	Barbara and Marius Tumilowicz S Handa E Pereira	56.69
9th	Gurney	Sam Gurney Caroline Caseley, L White V Hurst	56.13
16th	Tattersfield	Brad Tattersfield, Jan and Jenni Borrin, Margie Robbie	51.69
17th	Glyde	Chris Glyde, Maria Casci, Julie Quilty, Kevin Birch	51.22
24th	Marsland	A Marsland, H Blair, Jan Stupples, Robyn Findlay	47.65

No Kiwis feature in the Intermediate or Novice sections.

If you like opening lead problems (yes, I know that every opening lead is a problem!), try this one. You are East:

 Trumps and trump signals

Have you ever had two or three small trumps which usually fall under declarer's large ones? No need to answer! Why not put them to some good use? Use them to signal to partner as to where your outside non-trump honours might be. Sometimes, occasionally, it can be useful. Highish middle card suggests the higher unplayed suit, low one, the lower. Of course, a lot of the time you do not want signal anything like when you have a flat one count and then with honour x or a singleton, you cannot achieve anything. In other words, do not take the signal too seriously..but it could be useful..like here:

 North-South would not be the first pair ever to over-bid in Teams. At times, it is even recommended! However, once North had valued his jacks rather highly...or perhaps hoped for a heart fit (he was nearly right about that), the partnership was heading for game.

I chose the 10 as an opening lead and was majorly surprised when that held the first trick. Partner contributed the 3 which if meant anything, indicated clubs. Life would have been easier had I switched to the 10 at trick 2....but it looked like at some point, the defence needed to play a second round of trumps..so out came 9. That trick was won by dummy's jack with declarer playing a heart to his king. Partner's 7 was a little hard to read (reverse count) but the deciding factor in ducking was the fact that my partner seemed to have club cards and therefore, South would have the missing heart honours. Had I taken the A at that point, the contract would have made. 

All declarer could do now was draw trumps and try for a favourable diamond position...but there was not one...and the contract drifted three down.

Therefore, such a signal can only be a suggestion but can be a useful indication, as above.

Your lead?

So, did you lead a heart or a spade above? Well, Andrew Janisz led neither. He led his 6...yes away from the queen! With all those diamonds in his hand, he guessed North would need to ruff clubs in dummy. So, he tried to cut down ruffs:

 Now, Deep Finesse suggests you can/should be making 12 tricks. That involves in playing trumps correctly and taking a backward finesse in hearts to dispose of one of North's diamonds (2 ruffs with the fourth small diamond going on the A). However, Andrew's declarer did not manage that.

West won the A and returned his other club. "Where was the queen?" North mused. He assumed it was surely with West and finessed. Surely not! Andrew exited a spade and when North took the heart finesse the more natural way, the defence had three tricks, a reward for an enterprising opening lead.

See you tomorrow.

Richard Solomon

 

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